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Jeff Saturday to miss at least 6 weeks.

The Indianapolis Colts likely will be without Jeff Saturday for at least the first six weeks of the season, and longer if the Pro Bowl center decides to have surgery to repair ligament damage to his right knee, his agent said today.
Saturday could not be reached for comment and the Colts offered no update on his status. But Saturday’s agent, Ralph Cindrich, confirmed his client faces a long road back after tearing his medial collateral ligament in Sunday’s preseason loss to Buffalo.
If Saturday opts against surgery, “I don’t think he’ll be able to get back on the field for at least six or seven weeks,” Cindrich said. “He’s down for a while.”
If Saturday has surgery, his recovery might last 11 weeks, Cindrich said. “But from all reports,” he added, “he could be back before the end of the season.”
Saturday, 33, has started every game — 59 straight including playoffs — since late in the 2004 season. In his absence, rookie Steve Justice likely will start at center.
Complicating matters further for Saturday and the Colts is that he’s in the final year of his contract.
“Right now he’s just biding time,’’ Cindrich said. “Jeff wants (the knee) to settle down and we’ll do a little more research on it, a little more talking to make sure we’re on solid ground (with any decision).”

Re: Jeff Saturday to miss at least 6 weeks.

Polian knew Saturday would get injured in the third quarter of a preseason game when he should have been sitting already? Damn, he really is good.

Saturday's injury, while it was an accident, rests firmly on Dungy's shoulders. No reason for Saturday to be out there snapping the ball to a QB that's never gonna take a snap in the regular season.

Either way, I don't have much faith in a rookie center. The reason we drafted all those centers is we were hoping one could develop into a starting G.

We're in deep crap, especially with a gimpy Peyton back there. Teams were gonna be sending the house to try and get to him and take him out already, and now with Jeff out their gonna be even more interested in blitzing.

Re: Jeff Saturday to miss at least 6 weeks.

Polian knew Saturday would get injured in the third quarter of a preseason game when he should have been sitting already? Damn, he really is good.

Saturday's injury, while it was an accident, rests firmly on Dungy's shoulders. No reason for Saturday to be out there snapping the ball to a QB that's never gonna take a snap in the regular season.

Either way, I don't have much faith in a rookie center. The reason we drafted all those centers is we were hoping one could develop into a starting G.

We're in deep crap, especially with a gimpy Peyton back there. Teams were gonna be sending the house to try and get to him and take him out already, and now with Jeff out their gonna be even more interested in blitzing.

Ah, Jeff missed a few games in 04 and we had our best offensive season ever. As long is Peyton is under center, we'll make this work.

Re: Jeff Saturday to miss at least 6 weeks.

The line in 04 was more experienced, and I would not call our offensive line from last year fine. Peyton dealt with a ton of pressure at times last year. (Part of that was Ugoh missing time.)

This isn't just losing Jeff this is the possible next domino to fall, which would be Peyton.

But we still won 13 games.

And don't think there were never problems back when we had both Jeff and Tarik around. Remember the infamous "there were some protection problems" quote after the Steelers loss 3 seasons ago? That was when we had both Saturday and Glenn as pro bowlers.

Look, I would obviously rather have Saturday than not have him. But I think the other guys can hold the fort down until he comes back. That is what this team shows time and time again, regardless of who it is that falls. Now the one domino that could never fall is Peyton. If he ever goes down, that's the time to panic. That's when we'd see a drastic change in the win/loss column.

Re: Jeff Saturday to miss at least 6 weeks.

That's the one I wanted but by the time I registered it was already gone, so it was either a choice between the really early one or the really late one. If I took the latest one, I'd sleep the whole day away.

Re: Jeff Saturday to miss at least 6 weeks.

And we got absolutely cremated by the Chargers defense in the playoffs. They were pressuring Peyton the whole game. Not to mention the fact Addai averaged something like 50 ypg the last 6 games of the season.

I have noticed with the Colts that the offensive line seems to get progressively worse after about Week 10. I am actually going to see if this is illustrated statistically in the near future and report back on here. I don't know if it's because guys get tired or if other teams figure out our protection packages or what. I just remember a lot of frustrating playoff exits where Peyton was really getting harassed.

Re: Jeff Saturday to miss at least 6 weeks.

And we got absolutely cremated by the Chargers defense in the playoffs. They were pressuring Peyton the whole game. Not to mention the fact Addai averaged something like 50 ypg the last 6 games of the season.

I have noticed with the Colts that the offensive line seems to get progressively worse after about Week 10. I am actually going to see if this is illustrated statistically in the near future and report back on here. I don't know if it's because guys get tired or if other teams figure out our protection packages or what. I just remember a lot of frustrating playoff exits where Peyton was really getting harassed.

You're right, there were definitely problems as last year progressed.

My point though was that there were the same problems in the playoff game against Pittsburgh 3 years ago. That was when we had both Tarik and Saturday in their primes. Now of course, Pittsburgh's D gets a huge amount of credit for that game, but it showed that our O-Line wasn't invincible.

And Addai's drop in yardage could have something to do with Addai as well, IMO.

Re: Jeff Saturday to miss at least 6 weeks.

It's possible we MIGHT not see Jeff suit up for the Colts ever again. If he opts for surgery, then it's possible he might be out all year. And of course, his contract is up after this season.

This really blows. Jeff is a great guy and is awesome in the community. Thanks for everything Jeff. You deserved to help open the stadium that you helped build. Sometimes things just don't go as planned though.